Embodiments of the invention relate generally web applications, and more particularly, to generating automated web task procedures.
People often perform repeated web browsing tasks in websites, e.g., paying bills, booking flight tickets, or purchasing items from online vendors. Sometimes these tasks have many steps which are difficult to remember, specially if they are repeated infrequently. Web automation systems, such as the system described in the paper entitled “CoScripter: Automating and Sharing How-To Knowledge in the Enterprise,” Proceedings of CHI 2008, ACM, New York, 2008, enable users to record and playback automated scripts, i.e., web procedures, for doing repeated tasks.
Such web automation systems may not be widely used because they require manual efforts to create and maintain automated scripts. In addition, a web script may not work after a period of time if the website that script tries to access has changed after the creation of the script.